17-B. “Lose” what you don't use

The above maxim tells us the brain is plastic -- it can learn new things in new ways. But the opposite extreme is also very true -- we lose information at an alarming rate. In fact, we lose much more than we keep. What we keep is not ever truly permanent either. So we must continue to rekindle our networks. That can be done consciously, or with the help of sleep and our default modes. Although this may be counterintuitive, sleep and meditation (going into default mode) allows the hippocampus precious time to rekindle our lingering networks. So, unlike notebooks and computers, we must work at keeping our data alive.

Q. A computer does not lose a file simply because it was not is use for a long time. We do -- very often. What can you teach your students to help them combat this phenomenon?